Apple Cinnamon Muffins, delicious and comforting

  

When I baked this brilliant batch of Apple Cinnamon Muffins, it was the perfect homecoming gift after 3 months away, to myself and Mr. HRK. Baking to me says welcome home. I gave some away to visiting friends and neighbours, because this recipe makes a dozen, and they were all gone in two days. So delicious!

Apple and cinnamon are a classic combo for baking cakes and muffins, but the soft cake like crumb
and fresh cinnamon flavours of these little gems surpasses any muffins I have ever made, and that's a big call. I never order muffins these days if we venture out for coffee, because I am always disappointed. They are always either too large for me to eat, or too heavy in texture, and often don't taste as fresh as I would like

These muffins are the perfect size when baked, and after making these a few times with varying results, I now have the most successful wrappers that I like to use. They are available on our supermarket shelves

For muffins, I now like to use this style of tall wrapper. You can see that they are higher than the recess in a normal muffin tray, or the one I used anyway, which means there is no risk of the mixture rising up over the surface of the wrapper onto the metal tray. This happened the first time I made these muffins in Cairns,  and whilst my daughter and Mr. HRK still loved them, and I managed to remove them from the tray without too much trouble, I wasn't happy with them from that perspective. So I think the smaller fluted muffin wrappers are a risk to use, as each muffin almost doubles in size when cooked. If you use 12 of the larger wrappers, you can portion out 12 perfectly sized muffins. 

I also love that with these muffin cases, the wrapper just folds away cleanly from the muffin when it's time to eat them. The smaller fluted cases can take some of the muffin with them when being removed, know what I mean?

I might have deliberated a bit on this point, but after making a beautiful muffin batter, and this one is, it is such a shame to not be thrilled with the end product because the size and quality of the muffin cases let you down. I also use two muffin cases at a time, one placed inside another, to ensure they are firm enough to support the muffin batter.

Remember, that muffins are really best eaten on the day they are made. See my notes below.

Let's bake:

Ingredients:

Makes 12

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bi-carbonate soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cups milk

1 large apple, or 2 average sized apples, peeled and chopped, about 1 1/2 cups chopped

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (extra)

Cinnamon sugar topping

Use 3 tablespoons of ready made cinnamon sugar or use 3 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

245 calories per muffin, if you are counting

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C or 375 deg. F. Line your 12 cup muffin pan with muffin papers.

In your electric mixer bowl, beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until well mixed and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mix in well, and add the vanilla.

Meanwhile, in a another bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, bicarb (baking) soda and the salt.

Adjust your electric mixer  to a low speed, and beat in about 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Alternate this with about 1/3 of the milk. Keep repeating this process until everything is combined.

In a separate bowl, add the 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon to the chopped apple, and toss until the apple is covered.

Gently fold the chopped apple into the muffin batter using a large rubber spatula or wooden spoon.

Spoon the batter carefully into the prepared muffin pan.

Cooking notes:

Large Pink Lady apples are in the shops at the moment and one of those chopped up was exactly 1 1/2 cups, just what I needed.

I used ready made Cinnamon Sugar for the topping because we had it on hand, but making your own is probably more economical.

Muffins are best eaten on the day they are made. However, I can store these cooled muffins in an airtight container on my benchtop for about 4 days or in the frig for about 1 week. However in our house, they won't last more than 2 days.

If we are eating these muffins the day after baking them, I reheat them in the microwave for 30 seconds, just to freshen them up again. 

Chopped Apple tossed in fragrant cinnamon

Muffins ready to bake

Just out of the oven, and nicely risen

Apologies that the formatting in the 2nd paragraph of this post might be slightly out of kilter on your computer. I don't know what happened, but my laptop keyboard decided to be difficult during that paragraph and the delete button and backspace button were all over the place. I just soldiered on. Perhaps I pressed something accidently, but I couldn't correct it. I'm just going to post this and hope for the best. It's dinner time.

Happy baking!

Warm wishes and I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend.

Pauline